Africa-Press – Tanzania. IMPARTING practical knowledge and skills to graduates on financial matters is a fundamental initiative for NMB Bank that may increase efficiency in the banking industry to reach the unbanked population in the country.
This initiative has been made possible through the NMB’s Management Trainee Programme and a recent event NMB career fair for which over 1000 students from higher learning institutions from Zanzibar were reached.
For NMB, which is the largest bank in the land, grooming new talents and experts in the banking industry is supporting the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) quest to have all commercial banks recruit highly skilled and ethical staff.
According to the regulator, lack of skilled and ethical experts in the banking sector has in recent years made some banks incurring massive losses in the form of huge bad loans with most of them collapsing. Through these youth programmes, NMB has managed to create its own knowledgeable and skilled experts who have been coming up with innovative banking products to reach the financially underserved people in the community.
For example, NMB Bank recently launched a Mastaboda loan where over 5bn/- set aside for lending bodaboda riders to help youths engage in this business formally and contribute to economic development. This is one of the innovative products that targeted bodaboda riders, a group in society that most lenders consider risky to deal with.
This initiative will benefit bodaboda riders in the country estimated to be more than 2 million in the country. Developing skilled and competent staff has been one of the fundamental factors that may have contributed to the NMB bank’s outstanding performances as the most profitable bank, assets and balance sheet.
Commenting on the bank’s profit in the first quarter this year that surged by 33 per cent to 65bn/- from 48.7bn/- in the corresponding period, NMB Bank Managing Director Ruth Zaipuna said that the solid performance reflects continued revenue growth momentum, disciplined cost-optimization, and enhanced loan portfolio management.
Through the Management Trainee Programme, more than 50 students have benefitted, talents identified from the higher learning institutions to work with NMB and after two years if they qualify they get employed. NMB is the only financial institution that pays students doing an internship where each year over 300 students get the chance and are given between three to 12 months contract to get more experiences.
And last month, NMB Bank organised a career fair that brought together more than 1000 students from higher learning institutions in Zanzibar. The NMB career fair initiative focused on imparting skills to youth graduates to penetrate the labour market and discover new talents that will contribute to economic development.
The NMB Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar Zonal Manager, Donatus Richard said that the career fair will be held at the State University of Zanzibar (SUZA) to provide students with practical skills necessary in penetrating the labour market.
“Through the initiative, the bank will provide students with knowledge on financial literacy, various NMB accounts for them to save money to cater for life after completing their studies,” he said. The Head of the Human Resource Department at NMB, Joanitha Rwegasira said through the event, they intend to meet more than 1000 students from 10 universities in Zanzibar.
“This is the first time for the bank to organise such a big event that bring together students from higher learning institutions and various experts to provide them guidelines on what to be done to penetrate the labour market,” she said.
On his part, the president of Tanzania Employment Services Agency (AISEC), Michael Chacha said such workshops have been important platforms for students to creating self-awareness and also grasping employment opportunities.
